Artstor Inc

Nonprofit profile at a glance

EIN
300152767
IRS 990 coverage
2010–2018
Forms available
Form 990 2018
Location
New York, NY, USA
Phone
2125002400
Rating
78
Verdict
SUPPORTED
Rating confidence
Moderate
Sector
Management & Technical Assistance

Official website

Reported finances

Revenue
$10,293,427
Expenses
$11,041,542
Assets
$0
Liabilities
$0

Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2018. Amounts in USD.

Leadership & pay

31 people listed

Executive titles in this filing

  • KEVIN M GUTHRIE (PRESIDENT AND TRUSTEE)

Highest reported compensation

  • KEVIN M GUTHRIE (PRESIDENT AND TRUSTEE): $604,948 total reported compensation
  • LAURA BROWN (EVP, JSTOR MANAGING DIRECTOR): $436,782 total reported compensation
  • ROBERT HETERICK (VP INSTITUTIONAL PARTICIPATION): $434,040 total reported compensation

Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2018. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.

Overview

Mission

Artstor is a non-profit organization committed to enhancing scholarship and teaching through the use of digital images and media. As a digital library, it specializes in digital collection solutions for universities, museums, schools, and libraries. Artstor works closely with both providers and users of content from educational and cultural institutions around the world to develop and offer as a subscription service a repository of digital images and related data that include collections from a wide variety of civilizations, time periods, and media. Through its media management software, it provides a complete set of tools to manage digital collections and make them more discoverable.

What it reported doing in 2018

THE ARTSTOR DIGITAL LIBRARY ("ADL")OFFERS OVER 2.5 MILLION HIGH-QUALITY IMAGES across disciplines from 280+ contributors serving over 1,970 universities, schools, and museums in 56 countries. The images are drawn from different sources, such as museums, archaeological sites, photo archives, slide collections, and art-reference publishers, all rights-cleared for educational use. Each image is accompanied with authoritative metadata. The ADL resource includes powerful tools for viewing, zooming, comparing, sharing, and downloading images, as well as expert-created teaching resources and curated image groups. In addition to the program service revenue of $9,218,045 reported above, Artstor received grant revenue of $200,447 allocable to ADL reported on Part VIII, Line 1F.

Operating model

Revenue model
Earned-program. 98% of the money available for current operations came from fees and other program revenue.
Distribution model
Direct operator. The filing allocates 100% of reported program-service expenses outside its grant, affiliate-payment, and member-benefit lines. This expense classification does not rule out separately announced grant awards.

The verdict

SUPPORTED - A large share of available resources goes toward mission work and the filed numbers largely add up. Expenses are high relative to revenue and program spending has declined or grown slowly.

Rating breakdown

  • Financial Efficiency: 83
  • Transparency & Controls: 79
  • Accountability: 92
  • Sustainability: 9
  • Growth: 40

Detailed rating inputs

Financial Efficiency

  • Mission deployment rate: 96.1%; rating input score 96
  • Program expense ratio: 89.6%; rating input score 90
  • Fundraising efficiency: Limited

Transparency & Controls

  • Consistency checks: 100%; rating input score 100; 62nd percentile among comparable filings
  • Pay-setting controls: 3 of 6 controls in place; rating input score 50
    • Compensation committee: Pass
    • Independent consultant: Missing
    • Other Form 990s reviewed: Missing
    • Written employment contract: Missing
    • Compensation survey or study: Pass
    • Board or committee approval: Pass
  • Foreign activity oversight: Limited
  • Grant itemization coverage: Limited
  • Major donor itemization: Yes; rating input score 100
  • Related-party transparency: Limited

Accountability

  • Independent voting board: 86.7%; rating input score 87; 20th percentile among comparable filings
  • Governance controls: 9 of 9 controls in place; rating input score 100
    • Conflict-of-interest policy: Pass
    • Whistleblower policy: Pass
    • Document-retention policy: Pass
    • CEO compensation review process: Pass
    • Other executive compensation review process: Pass
    • Form 990 shared with the board: Pass
    • Board meeting minutes documented: Pass
    • Audit committee oversight: Pass
    • Independent financial-statement audit: Pass

Sustainability

  • Operating margin: -7.3%; rating input score 11; 11th percentile among comparable filings
  • Total-asset coverage ratio: 0; rating input score 0; 0th percentile among comparable filings
  • Liabilities to assets ratio: Limited
  • Officer compensation ratio: 6.1%; rating input score 33; 33rd percentile among comparable filings

Growth

  • Program expense growth: -4.2% per year; rating input score 0; 7th percentile among comparable filings
  • Revenue growth: 2.1% per year; rating input score 100; 28th percentile among comparable filings
  • Asset growth: -23.8% per year; rating input score 0; 1st percentile among comparable filings

Details

  • Where the money goes: 96.1% of revenue deployed · 89.6% of spending went to programs
  • Governance: 13 of 15 board members independent · 9 of 9 filing controls reported
  • Programs: 2 filed program accomplishments · $9.9M in reported program spending
  • Leadership: top reported pay $605K · 31 people listed · 3 of 6 pay-setting controls reported
  • Consistency: 23 of 23 current checks pass
  • Schedules: 7 filed schedules · includes major donors and executive pay
  • Filing history: 8 filing years from 2010 to 2018
  • Contacts: How to reach this organization
  • Related organizations: 1 filed related-organization link
  • Grant readiness: Federal tax and exclusion status, award history, and grant-maker relationships.
  • People: Everyone the filings name, and which of them the filings identify by more than a name.

Key Signals

Signals prioritize questions for review. They are not findings of misconduct.

  • High — Sustainability: Operating margin scored 11/100.
  • High — Growth: Program expense growth scored 0/100.
  • High — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 0/100.
  • High — Growth: Asset growth scored 0/100.
  • Moderate — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 33/100.